Post by shorthaul on Jul 16, 2009 7:45:20 GMT -5
TWIC a rock and a hard place:
fallout from the TWIC card
July 15, 2009
Linda Sunkle-Pierucki - Detroit Trucking Examiner
The National Employment Law Project released a report this week detailing the on-going problems with the way the Transportation Worker Identification Card has been implemented and issued. The report focuses primarily on non-Caucasian workers who have basically been screwed by the system. However, the ugly facts can affect anyone who is required to obtain one of these little ‘big brother’ cards. Over a million TWIC cards have been issued; an official estimate of those required to have the card have ranged between 1.2 million and 1.5 million workers.
The report shows that at least 10,000 workers have lost their jobs because of failures in the TWIC system. Again, this report focuses on port workers, such as warehouse workers, longshoremen and port truckers. This narrow definition of who needs the card clearly leaves out a huge number of truckers who will need the card if they EVER pick up or deliver at any United States port. What they’re missing here is that most long-haul drivers will have occasion to visit one port or another within the scope of their work. And, they’re not getting the card-mostly because the bright-boy pencil pushers have made it so difficult to do. Even in today’s brutal freight economy, drivers would rather turn down a load than deal with the mess the government has once again made.
Drivers struggled with the Hazmat background check, the fingerprinting and all the other nonsense to acquire the Hazmat card a couple of years ago. The process cost on the surface only a little over $100. Carriers didn’t want to pay for this cost so it came out of the drivers’ pockets-and drivers don’t get paid a premium to haul hazmat. In actuality, because of few collection points and the difficulty of getting the required fingerprinting done, most drivers had to take time off work and travel to a collection point on the assigned day to stand in line while confusion reigned. This can cost several hundred dollars if the timing causes a driver to miss a regularly-scheduled once or twice a week pick-up: that load goes to someone else and he usually sets until the next one-with no pay.
Then, carriers told their drivers to go get the fingerprints done without telling them the procedure: the application had to be filled out and fees paid in advance – and the FBI background check completed - before the fingerprints could be collected. I saw this first-hand when I did mine-out of thirteen drivers ahead of me, I ended up being only the sixth person to actually be fingerprinted. The rest wasted their day only to find out the hard way that they needed to start at the beginning of the process. Carriers, of course, feigned lack of responsibility for drivers not knowing the procedure. Facts are, for regulatory changes, there ARE no procedures in place to inform drivers except the carrier for company drivers. It’s often up to them to find out about regulatory changes based on whether or not their carrier bothers to tell them. Often they don’t-hoping for one last, now illegal load to be completed before the driver ends up with a personal ticket when he find out the hard way. This, of course, makes it HIS fault-not theirs.
The upshot of this mess is that many drivers refused to get a Hazmat certification. Carriers soon found out they couldn’t require it of existing drivers unless they wanted to pay for it. Many carriers stopped hauling hairspray and batteries altogether. And drivers who did their best to comply found out they’ll have to do it all over again when it’s time to renew their CDL-including new FBI check and new fingerprints!
Enter the TWIC card-the biometric identifier card needed to come and go at every post. Surely the same team of imbeciles that created the Hazmat certification system duplicated their stupidity here; the TWIC card requires another FBI background check and more fingerprints! And, no - the one you just completed for Hazmat isn’t sufficient. And, this one costs a bit more and takes longer. And the issuing and inspection locations are even fewer and are farther off the beaten track for most drivers. And, they aren’t set up for truck parking. And you cant go just once to the collection point: you must go back to the same collection point to have the credential issued. To add to the confusion ports in different states, simply to generate fees and make life difficult, often implemented their own system of additional ID cards along with the TWIC. Most drivers go into a port - seldom the same one - two or three times a year. Most have decided they wont go at all. After all, ports aren’t the easiest places to pick up or deliver freight anyway. So, the guess-timate of half a million drivers still needing a TWIC card has to be estimated low - about 25% of the actual number.
The NELP Report focused on the failures in the FBI background check system for the problems so many minorities faced. FBI reports are quick to pick up any crime someone is charged with but, if the charges are dismissed or end in acquittal, they often don’t get updated in the report. So, applicants are often rejected for the TWIC Card and have to appeal. The appeals system can take around five months. During that time, the worker becomes unemployed. Further, disqualifying charges have been vague and arbitrary ever since this ‘credential’ was implemented. The same scenario occurs with workers who have been or are anywhere in the immigration system. The same thing happened with the Hazmat data collection but many drivers who weren’t sure of their status refused to even submit to the background check and simply don’t haul hazmat. Considering that the FBI is supposed to be doing all of this background checking to keep us ‘safe’, maybe we should all worry. Because, if you’re a foreign national, you don’t have to have the TWIC credential at all!
The reasoning is this: a great many -and likely the vast majority - of ship’s personnel are foreign nationals. To demand that they all have a background check and submit to fingerprinting was considered intrusive, likely impossible and very likely in violation of trade agreements. It’s customary that these sailors can leave the ship and wander freely around the port. In many cases, they can leave the port and visit ashore. In fact, jumping ship is one of the favored ways of gaining illegal entry into the country for sailors from nations with low immigration quotas or ‘iffy’ diplomatic relations with the United States. In short, they are not our friends. And, they’re here-with no background check and no idea who they even are!
Yes, Transportation Security Administration has certainly outdone themselves with this system. Why is it that, every time somebody puts pen to paper in Washington DC, another group of American taxpayers gets screwed over?
Copyright 2009 Examiner.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Author
Linda Sunkle-Pierucki is an Examiner from Detroit.
fallout from the TWIC card
July 15, 2009
Linda Sunkle-Pierucki - Detroit Trucking Examiner
The National Employment Law Project released a report this week detailing the on-going problems with the way the Transportation Worker Identification Card has been implemented and issued. The report focuses primarily on non-Caucasian workers who have basically been screwed by the system. However, the ugly facts can affect anyone who is required to obtain one of these little ‘big brother’ cards. Over a million TWIC cards have been issued; an official estimate of those required to have the card have ranged between 1.2 million and 1.5 million workers.
The report shows that at least 10,000 workers have lost their jobs because of failures in the TWIC system. Again, this report focuses on port workers, such as warehouse workers, longshoremen and port truckers. This narrow definition of who needs the card clearly leaves out a huge number of truckers who will need the card if they EVER pick up or deliver at any United States port. What they’re missing here is that most long-haul drivers will have occasion to visit one port or another within the scope of their work. And, they’re not getting the card-mostly because the bright-boy pencil pushers have made it so difficult to do. Even in today’s brutal freight economy, drivers would rather turn down a load than deal with the mess the government has once again made.
Drivers struggled with the Hazmat background check, the fingerprinting and all the other nonsense to acquire the Hazmat card a couple of years ago. The process cost on the surface only a little over $100. Carriers didn’t want to pay for this cost so it came out of the drivers’ pockets-and drivers don’t get paid a premium to haul hazmat. In actuality, because of few collection points and the difficulty of getting the required fingerprinting done, most drivers had to take time off work and travel to a collection point on the assigned day to stand in line while confusion reigned. This can cost several hundred dollars if the timing causes a driver to miss a regularly-scheduled once or twice a week pick-up: that load goes to someone else and he usually sets until the next one-with no pay.
Then, carriers told their drivers to go get the fingerprints done without telling them the procedure: the application had to be filled out and fees paid in advance – and the FBI background check completed - before the fingerprints could be collected. I saw this first-hand when I did mine-out of thirteen drivers ahead of me, I ended up being only the sixth person to actually be fingerprinted. The rest wasted their day only to find out the hard way that they needed to start at the beginning of the process. Carriers, of course, feigned lack of responsibility for drivers not knowing the procedure. Facts are, for regulatory changes, there ARE no procedures in place to inform drivers except the carrier for company drivers. It’s often up to them to find out about regulatory changes based on whether or not their carrier bothers to tell them. Often they don’t-hoping for one last, now illegal load to be completed before the driver ends up with a personal ticket when he find out the hard way. This, of course, makes it HIS fault-not theirs.
The upshot of this mess is that many drivers refused to get a Hazmat certification. Carriers soon found out they couldn’t require it of existing drivers unless they wanted to pay for it. Many carriers stopped hauling hairspray and batteries altogether. And drivers who did their best to comply found out they’ll have to do it all over again when it’s time to renew their CDL-including new FBI check and new fingerprints!
Enter the TWIC card-the biometric identifier card needed to come and go at every post. Surely the same team of imbeciles that created the Hazmat certification system duplicated their stupidity here; the TWIC card requires another FBI background check and more fingerprints! And, no - the one you just completed for Hazmat isn’t sufficient. And, this one costs a bit more and takes longer. And the issuing and inspection locations are even fewer and are farther off the beaten track for most drivers. And, they aren’t set up for truck parking. And you cant go just once to the collection point: you must go back to the same collection point to have the credential issued. To add to the confusion ports in different states, simply to generate fees and make life difficult, often implemented their own system of additional ID cards along with the TWIC. Most drivers go into a port - seldom the same one - two or three times a year. Most have decided they wont go at all. After all, ports aren’t the easiest places to pick up or deliver freight anyway. So, the guess-timate of half a million drivers still needing a TWIC card has to be estimated low - about 25% of the actual number.
The NELP Report focused on the failures in the FBI background check system for the problems so many minorities faced. FBI reports are quick to pick up any crime someone is charged with but, if the charges are dismissed or end in acquittal, they often don’t get updated in the report. So, applicants are often rejected for the TWIC Card and have to appeal. The appeals system can take around five months. During that time, the worker becomes unemployed. Further, disqualifying charges have been vague and arbitrary ever since this ‘credential’ was implemented. The same scenario occurs with workers who have been or are anywhere in the immigration system. The same thing happened with the Hazmat data collection but many drivers who weren’t sure of their status refused to even submit to the background check and simply don’t haul hazmat. Considering that the FBI is supposed to be doing all of this background checking to keep us ‘safe’, maybe we should all worry. Because, if you’re a foreign national, you don’t have to have the TWIC credential at all!
The reasoning is this: a great many -and likely the vast majority - of ship’s personnel are foreign nationals. To demand that they all have a background check and submit to fingerprinting was considered intrusive, likely impossible and very likely in violation of trade agreements. It’s customary that these sailors can leave the ship and wander freely around the port. In many cases, they can leave the port and visit ashore. In fact, jumping ship is one of the favored ways of gaining illegal entry into the country for sailors from nations with low immigration quotas or ‘iffy’ diplomatic relations with the United States. In short, they are not our friends. And, they’re here-with no background check and no idea who they even are!
Yes, Transportation Security Administration has certainly outdone themselves with this system. Why is it that, every time somebody puts pen to paper in Washington DC, another group of American taxpayers gets screwed over?
Copyright 2009 Examiner.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Author
Linda Sunkle-Pierucki is an Examiner from Detroit.